connecting*the*dots

2 Responses to “what’s a little collateral damage in the struggle to exist?…”  

1. 1 Sue Aug 7th, 2006 at 12:17 pm

   How snarky of you, that headline. If the US were attacked almost daily by terrorists and your family members had been injured (or worse), would you serve in the US Army if called upon to do so?

2. 2 Sean Coon Aug 7th, 2006 at 12:43 pm

   thanks, i’m apply for a headline writer job at the n&r next week.

   do you really want to jump to that analogy (as the US doesn’t even have a draft) instead of dealing with the current thread? is this a veiled attempt to call me out as a coward?

   i’ll play along…

   i lived 2 miles away from the WTC when it went down. as an american, i was scarred, but as a new yorker it hit much harder, much deeper. my first thought was that i wanted retribution. blood. i still want osama’s head on a skewer. but less than two months after 9/11, my perspective wasn’t to pick up a weapon and go kill some random people to “ensure” peace. that’s not the way life works. well, not in the life that i want to live.

   random acts of violence only create more random acts of violence. this israeli soldier is saying through his actions that the vast majority of the lebanese casualties are being considered justified in the broad-stroked war on hezbollah and he wants no part of it.

   that’s my exact stance with the iraq war (what’s yours?). so i’m not quite sure as to how i’d answer your question. no, i wouldn’t go fight in iraq, but i would’ve been just fine being called to track down bin laden and take him out. unfortunately, soldiers can’t make these a la carte decisions of which war to fight in… Sergeant Zack Bazzi had a great line about being a soldier in The War Tapes (paraphrasing): It’s the best job in the world, unfortunately you can’t pick your wars.